Faina Savenkova: A Blank Sheet
The 14-year-old writer from Lugansk will never speak directly to Ukrainian President Zelensky. But if she did, here is what she would say:
I’ve written about young Faina before. Faina who spoke before the UN Security Council at the age of 12, calling on Kiev to stop bombing the Russian-speaking citizens of Eastern Ukraine. Faina who was then promptly added to the Ukrainian hit-list, Myrotvorets. Faina who has lived in a war-zone since the age of five.
I frequently do translations for her and sometimes I also contact people for her to interview. She is a skilled journalist in her own right, as well as a playwright and author.
It is my honor to help her.
She will never speak directly to Zelensky. But if she did, here is what she would say.
Faina Savenkova: The Blank Sheet….
In 2014, I was 5 years old and I hardly understood anything about politics and events happening in our country at that time. Looking through old videos and photos from Maidan, one can’t help but feel as if everything you are witnessing is a bad theatrical performance with a drunken director and untalented actors. Here you have an artist playing Yatsenyuk, shouting with a fake tear that he will put a bullet in his forehead for the Motherland. Here you have a shrill nationalist declaring that in a country where almost half of the population is Russian, Ukrainians are first and foremost. Or a magic wand cured politicians from serious illnesses, following the precept: “Stand up and walk!” All this theater of absurdity could have been overlooked if the war had not started and the blood of innocent Crimeans, Lugansk and Donetsk people had not been spilled.
And in the end, in the most honest election of the century, he came — a folk hero who was supposed to stop the war by reconciling East and West. Uh-huh. I’ve written a great many appeals to various world leaders over three years. But I have never written and will never write to one person — President Zelensky. No matter how much I’ve been asked. Nevertheless, recently I thought, “What would an appeal to this character look like?”
“Hello, disrespected Mr. Zelensky!
“The Ukrainian people once chose you unanimously, believing that you are willing and able to end the war. You promised. You promised to stop repressions against journalists and opposition politicians, to make Ukraine a peaceful country again, and to make people live in dignity. You promised…
“Congratulations, you’ve achieved what you’ve been working towards for so long. You are the bloodiest president… a dictator after Hitler. Not only did you not stop the war, you dragged Russia into it, and now every day ordinary Ukrainians are dying on the front lines and their children are orphaned. You are hated not only in Donbass, but in Ukraine itself.
“Promises… How are things going there with good jobs and a high standard of living? I understand that you did not seek them for all Ukrainians, but only for your friends and those who sit in Parliament? Why didn’t you specify right away? By the way, where is freedom of speech? Didn’t you say that Ukraine is a state governed by the rule of law? And how? Did you prove the guilt of Viktor Medvedchuk and other politicians? Or did you just ‘appoint’ them guilty, and modern Ukraine doesn’t need such trifles as ‘proof’? And what about ‘Myrotvorets’? Have you punished those responsible for the creation and operation of this site?
“You are demolishing monuments, moving the date of the Christmas celebration, destroying the church….. How do you sleep at night, Vladimir Alexandrovich? Someday the relatives of all those whom you sent to their deaths will surely come and ask you. The people of Donbass, Odessa, Kiev, Crimea, all of Russia. They will remind you of what you have done.”
My letter would probably end here. Only because it is not customary to curse. You can only ask God to set things right and punish the perpetrators.
It could have been. But there would be a blank sheet of paper on the table….
About the author:
Deborah Armstrong currently writes about geopolitics with an emphasis on Russia. She previously worked in local TV news in the United States where she won two regional Emmy Awards. In the early 1990’s, Deborah lived in the Soviet Union during its final days and worked as a television consultant at Leningrad Television. You can support Deborah’s writing at Paypal or Patreon, or donate via Substack.
Powerful!
I was disgusted at Ukraine for putting Faina, a teenager, on their hit list.
I appreciated her powerful yet simple definition of Nazis which I posted at https://mikehampton.substack.com/p/putin-ukraine-nazi-history-civil-war